Jamal Murray overcomes illness to help Nuggets force Game 7 against Thunder in Western Conference semifinals
Jamal Murray led the Denver Nuggets to a Game 6 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder at Ball Arena on Thursday to force Game 7.
By Ben Morse, CNN
(CNN) — Jamal Murray overcame illness to help the Denver Nuggets force a Game 7 against the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder in their Western Conference semifinals series in the NBA playoffs.
Murray played 42 minutes of Denver’s 119-107 Game 6 victory on Thursday in Colorado, scoring 25 points as well as adding eight rebounds and seven assists to level the best-of-seven series at 3-3.
The 28-year-old point guard had been listed as questionable for the game after waking up on Thursday feeling unwell.
But he ended up suiting up and playing the highest number of minutes in the game, helping the Nuggets remain in their series.
Murray admitted afterwards that he never doubted whether he’d play in Game 6, explaining that the “team needs you.”
Denver’s interim head coach David Adelman called Murray a “tough-minded man” for the resilience he showed in the victory, admitting there had been a “high likelihood” he didn’t play.
“I kind of was watching the first six minutes (thinking): ‘Is this real? Can he do it?’” Adelman told reporters afterwards. “And I thought he had good energy and good juice. There was a couple of times where he really wanted to go back to get the ball because he was so gassed, having a hard time breathing.
“But that’s Jamal Murray. It’s almost like the worse it is, the better off it’s going to be.”
As they did so successfully during their title run in 2023, Murray complemented the dominance of Nikola Jokić against the Thunder in Game 6.
Murray’s dynamism off the ball molded perfectly with Jokić’s precision passing and size inside to keep Oklahoma City’s defenders scrambling for solutions.
Jokić led the Nuggets with 29 points, 14 rebounds and eight assists while Julian Strawther added a surprise 15 points off the bench to give a much-needed scoring punch.
Strawther had only played 30 minutes in the first five games of the series, but scored all his points in the second half to take the burden off the team’s stars.
For the Thunder, they lacked offense outside of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 32 points, with 2025 All-Star Jalen Williams continuing to struggle during the series.
Williams finished with just six points, with his performance epitomized by making a strip in the fourth quarter but missing the layup with no defenders near him.
“I just hurt us tonight not making shots,” Williams said afterwards, per NBA.com. “I got to spots I wanted to get to, they didn’t go in. That’s how basketball works.”
Thursday’s result sets up a thrilling Game 7 on Sunday back in Oklahoma, with a spot in the Western Conference finals against the Minnesota Timberwolves on the line.
It will be the Nuggets’ seventh Game 7 since 2019, the most in the NBA during that span, according to ESPN.
Besides Murray’s illness, the Nuggets will be concerned about the availability of their star power forward, Aaron Gordon, after he left late in the fourth quarter of Game 6 having appeared to injure his left hamstring.
With two days of rest before Game 7, Gordon downplayed missing the elimination match-up.
“I feel OK,” Gordon told reporters. “We’ll see. I’m going to start the recovery process now and make sure I’m getting ready for Game 7.”
The-CNN-Wire
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